The 25 candidates studying to become priests at Aquinas Institute of Theology were described as "anxious" but not worried Monday as a Vatican team began evaluating how they are prepared intellectually, spiritually and sexually for priesthood.

"Whenever you are under the spotlight, it's difficult," the seminary's president, the Rev. Charles Bouchard, said at a press conference Monday. The students themselves were off limits to reporters, so it was Bouchard who was left to describe their mood....

Bouchard said that what Aquinas tried to determine about its applicants was whether they have the capability to live a celibate life.

Whereas some Catholics believe that homosexuality should disqualify men from priesthood, Bouchard said, "We hope to provide evidence that that shouldn't be the case."

3 Comments:

As well as "fightin' words," it sounds like they are going to be forthright and admit that at least some of their candidates are homosexual. And I think that gives the lie to the notion that people won't tell the truth about their "orientation." I think many of them will.

And if I WERE trying to prove that people with "SSA" or whatever they're calling it now are proper candidates for the priesthood, that's what I would do.

It wouldn't be at all surprising if Fr. Bouchard holds the same basic position on end-of-life medical care as his confrere Fr. Benedict Ashley, OP, one of the most respected American moral theologians alive. To call that position "rather heterodox" is to imply that the issue is a settled one in Catholic medical ethics, which it is not.

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About Me

One of global Catholicism's most prominent chroniclers, Rocco Palmo has held court as the "Church Whisperer" since 2004, when the pages you're reading were launched with an audience of three, grown since by nothing but word of mouth, and kept alive throughout solely by means of reader support.

A former US correspondent for the London-based international Catholic weekly The Tablet, he's been a church analyst for The New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, BBC, NBC, CNN and NPR among other mainstream print and broadcast outlets worldwide.

A native of Philadelphia, Rocco Palmo attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. In 2010, he received a Doctorate of Humane Letters honoris causa from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St Louis.

In 2011, Palmo co-chaired the first Vatican conference on social media, convened by the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Social Communications. By appointment of Archbishop Charles Chaput OFM Cap., he's likewise served on the first-ever Pastoral Council of the Archdiocese, whose Church remains his home.